Provision of specialist recruitment services to support the Council's Planning Service through the continued engagement of an existing consultant.

Procurement Act 2023

Direct award This Transparency Notice is issued in accordance with Section 44 of the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulation 26 of the Procurement Regulations 2024, which require publication of a transparency notice prior to making a direct award. The Council intends to enter into a direct award for the continued provision of specialist recruitment services with Stonehouse Recruitment Ltd, retaining the same consultant currently engaged on assignment The direct award is made under the permitted justification in Schedule 5 (technical reasons), as the continuation of the existing consultant is necessary to maintain service continuity and avoid disruption to the current recruitment programme. The consultant has specialist knowledge of the roles, candidate pipeline and compliance requirements. Furthermore, they have developed excellent working knowledge of the Council's Planning Systems and is carrying a large caseload of live applications, which would mean that letting the consultant leave and replacing them at this stage would result in significant duplication of work, delays in the determination of planning applications, and service inefficiency. The result would be a drop in the Council's nationally monitored KPI Planning performance, an adverse reputational impact upon the Planning Service and Council, and the possibility of planning fee refunds in accordance with the Planning Guarantee. The proposed direct award will extend the current arrangement for a further 12 months with the option to extend for a further 5 months to ensure continuity of service and allow the Council time to plan and implement any future procurement strategy in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023. NOTE: there is only one contract for this contract details notice